1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing an optically active 1-substituted 2-propanol which is useful as a starting material for pharmaceuticals or agricultural chemicals, particularly as an intermediate for synthetic antibacterial agents.
2. Discussion of Background
The following methods have been proposed for the synthesis of optically active 1-aryloxy-2-propanols among optically active 1-substituted 2-propanols.
(1) A method of reacting optically active 2-O-tetrahydropyranylpropane-1,2-diol with a fluorobenzene derivative (EP322815A).
(2) A method of reacting optically active 2-O-tetrahydropyranylpropane-1,2-diol with a phenol derivative by means of a Mitsunobu reagent (JP-A-1-250369).
(3) A method of reducing a 1-aryloxy-2-propanone by means of a microorganism (JP-A-3-183469, JP-A-5-68577).
(4) A method of converting a racemic modification of a 1-aryloxy-2-propanol to an optically active 1-aryloxy-2-acyloxypropane by means of a microorganism, followed by hydrolysis (JP-A-4-267890).
However, the above methods have the following problems.
The methods (1) and (2) require many steps for the synthesis of the optically active starting material. The methods (3) and (4) utilize microorganisms and thus have drawbacks specific to microbial reactions. For example, they have problems such that the volume efficiency is poor, and an antipode having an absolute configuration opposite to the desired optically active substance, will be obtained. Namely, the conventional methods have had problems in their industrial application.